


The Days We Counted

by weilongfu



Category: HIStory3: 那一天 | HIStory3: Make Our Days Count
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Canon did us dirty, Don't copy to another site, Fix-It, Fluff, Fuck Canon, Future Fic, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, we make our own happy endings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21853786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weilongfu/pseuds/weilongfu
Summary: Make our days count? These are the days Yu Xi Gu and Xiang Hao Ting counted after six years of being together. Days of happiness. Days of being together. Days of living in a future they dreamed of. Days of forgotten lunches, shared PhD students, working during vacations, and wedding preparations.Eps 18.5-20 (LINE)/Ep 10 (Viki) do not exist. Fuck the canon.
Relationships: Xiang Hao Ting/Yu Xi Gu
Comments: 60
Kudos: 264





	The Days We Counted

Day 2191

Amidst a quiet night, Xiang Hao Ting jolted out of bed and fell to the floor, hands scrambling around him for a body that was still sleeping peacefully on the bed. Once the familiar form of Yu Xi Gu’s body was under his palms, still warm and vibrant, Hao Ting allowed himself to breathe. A moment later, Xi Gu’s eyes slowly opened. 

“Hao Ting?” Xi Gu put a hand over one of Hao Ting’s. The warmth did a lot to ease the chill in Hao Ting’s bones. “Are you okay?”

“Just…” Hao Ting fell into their bed with a sigh and a groan before pulling Xi Gu against his body, curling around him like a vine wrapping around a trellis to reach the sun. “It was that nightmare again. The one where...” Hao Ting nuzzled the top of Xi Gu’s head. “The one where you went out for soy sauce and you forgot your wallet and then the car-”

Xi Gu rubbed Hao Ting’s back. “The same one you had six years ago?” Hao Ting nodded, but the tremors that lingered through his body were enough of a tell. Xi Gu politely didn’t mention the other times Hao Ting had had the same nightmare. “It’s okay. I’m here.” Xi Gu kisses Hao Ting’s clavicle. “We’re here together. It’s just a bad dream.”

“It always feels… weirdly real…”

Xi Gu sighed. “You know… This only happens when you watch those dramas-”

“Hey! Normally that series is very good! They said they’re committed to happy endings! How could I know that this time it was a sad one! And it came out of nowhere too! Like who honestly expected that they would only have that brief time together. Tch.” Hao Ting pulled Xi Gu closer and Xi Gu finally started protesting the increasing strength of Hao Ting’s grip. “Terrible writing!”

“Okay okay.” Xi Gu squirmed a bit more and Hao Ting finally let go. “Go to sleep. You’ll never hear the end of it from your students if you mess up the difference between gravitational constant and acceleration due to gravity again.”

“It was one time!”

\------

Day 2200

Xi Gu waved off the last of his Advanced Astrophysics lecture students and leaned against the door of the office he shared with Hao Ting. No sounds escaped the heavy wood, so Xi Gu was sure he’d be enjoying lunch alone. Patting down his satchel for the office keys, Xi Gu found his bag thinner than usual. A quick glance confirmed his suspicions, the delicious carrot and chicken stir fry that Hao Ting had made that morning was not in his bag. 

Normally Hao Ting would make sure Xi Gu had taken his lunch before they both left for campus, but today Xi Gu had run off early for a meeting. A rare pout crossed Xi Gu’s lips before he finally opened the office door, but there, sitting on top of his desk was the forgotten lunch box.

Xi Gu happily strolled over to admire it and found Hao Ting’s note.

“ _ You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached to your shoulders! Since you forgot it at home, I added some pickled carrots for you on the side. <3 Xiang Xiang _ ”

Xi Gu made another face, but there was no hiding his happy grin. Looking around to make sure there were no witnesses, Xi Gu tucked the note into his mini notebook in his satchel before sitting down to enjoy his lunch. 

Just outside the door, Hao Ting looked down at his feet, smiled, and then ran to his next lecture.

\-------

Day 2217

Chen Yi eyed the prospective graduate student, a young man named Li Tao, carefully while her two mentors made doe eyes at each other around a computer screen while discussing the newest data collected. It was a heavy burden, being the senior PhD student in the combination XiangYu Astrophysics Lab, but Chen Yi adored her work and adored her mentors as people and professors. 

It was with this regard that she took the measure of Li Tao. Li Tao’s eyes had not strayed from Professor Yu and Professor Xiang once during the entire conversation. Unfortunately, as senior PhD student, it fell to Chen Yi to make sure Li Tao was interested in the science and not the professors.

There had been far too many  _ incidents _ in the past with “admirers” for both or either professor and Chen Yi had learned how to develop a thick skin and just clear the air from the beginning to avoid such unpleasantness. And also to avoid wasting time from training students who didn’t know a neutron star from dirt on a lens. 

“So, which one do you like best?” Chen Yi put on a bit of a smile and kept her tone light. 

“Huh? Oh… Professor Yu for sure,” Li Tao said with a nod. “He’s really awesome. I really enjoyed his paper on the newest gravity wave data.”

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow. “Oh you read that paper already?”

“Yes! I did have questions on some of the math, in particular…” Chen Yi let the formulas and theories Li Tao was talking about wash over her for a minute before stopping him.

“You’ll do just fine here.” Chen Li patted him on the shoulder and turned around to notify the pair about her approval, but found them holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes as if they’d not been standing next to each other for the past fifteen minutes. “Oh, these two. Li Tao, you’re in for a good time. But if you want my advice, you make sure you’re only talking to  _ one _ of them at a time. If they’re anywhere within three meters of each other, it gets like that.” Chen Li gestured to the faces Professor Xiang and Professor Yu were making. “Come on, let me show you where all the grad student desks are.”

Li Tao followed Chen Li away only to jump a little bit when another PhD student physically shoved the two professors apart and Professor Xiang objected.

“Xiao Zhang! What do you think you’re up to!”

“Professor Xiang, if you and Professor Yu need to stare into each other’s eyes for fifteen minutes, please do it in your office and not in front of data I need for my committee meeting.”

\------

Day 2270

Hao Ting firmly planted his feet and refused to be brought any closer to the suit shop. Xi Gu stopped tugging on his arm, but did not remove his hands.

“Hao Ting, what is wrong with this suit shop?”

“I don’t trust it.” Hao Ting waved a hand in front of his face. “I get weird vibes. Like it used to be the front of a gang or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! The food truck uncle says he knows this place sells nice suits! He even said he knows the owner and will get us a discount!”

“Food truck uncle is shady as fuck.” Hao Ting rolled his eyes. “He looks like he was a murderer before he started his food truck. That definitely means this place was a front!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Food truck uncle is dating a police officer. How can he be a murderer?”

Food truck uncle, or as he continued to try and get Xi Gu to call him, Uncle Fang, usually had his food truck positioned just outside the local police station, a short walk away from campus. His food was always delicious, if a bit pricey, so lunch from his truck was always a once a month treat. For whatever reason, Uncle Fang had taken one look at Xi Gu and decided to nearly adopt him, much to the amusement of his boyfriend Officer Zhao and Hao Ting’s annoyance and fear.

“I swear, I went to pick up our lunch without you last month and he pulled out a butterfly knife and started talking about the importance of commitment.”

“That’s ridiculous. No one carries around butterfly knives anymore.”

“I literally saw him pull out a butterfly knife Xi Gu. I have empirical evidence.”

Xi Gu smiled. “I remember the days where you didn’t know what empirical evidence meant.” He reached up and ruffled Hao Ting’s hair. “How much you’ve grown these past years.”

“Yu Xi Gu… Don’t tease me! I’m a changed man!”

“Well then we’ll have to get you a new change of clothes.” Xi Gu laughed. “I refuse to let you marry me in that horrible thing your father lent you.”

\------

Day 2300

Li Cang Yu opened the lab storage closet, peeked inside, promptly closed it, then turned to face Li Tao. 

“Yeah, you’ll have to wait for a bit before we can get you a new flash drive from storage.”

“Huh?” Li Tao tried to peek around Li Cang Yu. “Senior Li, what’s wrong with the storage room?”

Li Cang Yu pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to focus on why he loved working in the lab when his mentors were like this. “It’s apparently nap time.”

“What?”

“It’s nap time. You’ll disturb them. Professor Yu doesn’t sleep enough and Professor Xiang gets upset when Professor Yu doesn’t sleep enough. I’ll buy you a coffee while we wait. Come on.”

Undisturbed, Professor Yu slept on top of Professor Xiang on top of the spare cot they kept in the back for late nights and emergency naps.

Fortunately the two woke up just as Li Tao and Li Cang Yu finished their coffees. Li Cang Yu had even been kind enough to buy them both one to bring them back fully into wakefulness.

\------

Day 2551

“Yu Xi Gu, it is 6 AM and we are across the world. What are you doing on your laptop right now?” The furious click clack of keys that had woken up Hao Ting suddenly stopped. “We’re on  _ vacation _ . We are in  _ America _ . Why are you working on  _ Chen Li’s dissertation at 6 AM _ ?”

Xi Gu turned to look at Hao Ting briefly and then hit another sequence of keys. “Chen Li is panicking and we only have a month left before she defends.”

“Chen Li is supposed to write the bulk of this  _ herself _ .”

“Chen Li  _ has _ written the bulk of this herself. I am helping her edit.”

Despite the fact that he was in his late twenties, Hao Ting threw a tantrum in bed. “Yu! Xi! Gu! If you love your husband, you’ll get off the laptop right now or be punished!”

The typing stopped again. “If my husband loved me, he’d let me keep typing because we’re not going anywhere for another… four hours anyway.” Xi Gu turned and gave Hao Ting one of his pleading smiles. “Right? Husband?”

Hao Ting scrunched up his nose and threw off the blankets before grabbing the laptop and running as fast as he could for the bathroom. Xi Gu immediately gave chase and just barely managed to catch Hao Ting before he could get more than a foot into the doorway.

“This is our vacation and honeymoon in one! And you’re spending it on Chen Li’s dissertation!” Hao Ting pulled against Xi Gu’s grip, but at last, after years of proper feeding and care, Xi Gu had developed to be more than skin and bone. “Her dissertation will still be there when we get back to Taipei!”

“And you’ll still be with me whether we’re here or in Taipei!” Xi Gu finally smacked the back of Hao Ting’s head. “What’s more important?!”

Hao Ting’s face softened, but he still held the laptop out of Xi Gu’s reach. “Fine, then I want a kiss.”

“What?”

“Give me a kiss, husband, and I’ll happily go back to sleep and let you continue to work away at Chen Li’s dissertation for the next four hours.”

Xi Gu sighed and pulled Hao Ting down for his kiss. “You haven’t changed one bit,” Xi Gu mumbled against Hao Ting’s lips. “Changed man my ass.”

Hao Ting took that moment to squeeze an asscheek with one of his hands. “It’s a really nice ass.”

\------

Day 2556

“Happy seven years of being together,” Hao Ting said as he traced the lines of Xi Gu’s face while they lay in bed together. “May we have one hundred more.”

Xi Gu smiled and cupped Hao Ting’s cheek. “May we have one hundred lifetimes more.”

“One hundred lifetimes?” Hao Ting’s smile grew. “Okay, then promise it to me.” Hao Ting held out his pinky finger. “For one hundred lifetimes or more.”

Xi Gu hooked his pinky around Hao Ting’s. “For one hundred lifetimes or more. I promise.”


End file.
